This invention relates generally to means for connecting tape bonded semiconductor chips to external electrical conductor leads and more particularly to a universal electrical conductor pattern formed on a dielectric sheet or substrate which is adapted to accept chips of various sizes and with varying numbers of leads.
The development of integrated circuit chips, particularly medium and large scale integrated circuit chips, has created a need for improved manufacturing processes which lend themselves to automating the connecting of conductive flexible leads of lead frame to an integrated circuit (IC) chip and of such chips and part of their lead frame to substrates or into packages to connect the chips into electrical circuits known as hybrid microcircuits. It is known to use a relatively long tape like carrier, similar to standard motion picture film, to which is bonded a thin metallic layer of a suitable electrical conductor such as copper, nickel or aluminum. The metallic layer can be formed into a lead frame of a desired configuration by a conventional photo etching process. Subsequently, IC chips are bonded to the lead frames. The prior art also teaches excising a chip and a portion of its lead frame directly from a substantially continuous strip of such tape or film. For a detailed consideration of such technology, reference is made to an article by the present inventor entitled, "Automated Tape Carrier Bonding For Hybrids" which appeared in the March, 1978 issue of Solid State Technology, at pp. 39-48.